Hot Topics:

Local News

Fort Morgan sales tax ballot issue language closer to set

Some opposition now getting voiced to proposed tax increase for streets, city clerk says

By Jenni Grubbs

Times Staff Writer

Posted:
08/16/2017 06:22:02 PM MDT

Fort Morgan councilmen Clint Anderson and Dan Marler listen as City Manager Jeff Wells reads the draft language for a ballot issue to raise city sales tax by 1 percent with the money going toward street improvements during Tuesday night's council meeting. The council gave City Attorney Jason Meyers feedback on crafting the final language for that proposed ballot issue. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)

The Fort Morgan City Council on Tuesday night gave City Attorney Jason Meyers the direction he needed to complete the final version of the language for a ballot issue that would seek a 1 percent city sales tax increase with the revenue going to street improvements.

City Manager Jeff Wells read the draft of that ballot issue language and asked the council members for their feedback.

And give Wells and Meyers feedback they did, seeking a simpler, more plainly worded ballot issue than what the city manager and city attorney presented them Tuesday night.

The draft included a fair amount of legal language at the start of the ballot issue about how much more the city would be allowed to collect and spend in tax money. That language is required by the Taxpayers Bill of Rights (TABOR) amendment to the Colorado Constitution to be included in such ballot issues seeking tax increases.

"A lot of that is legalese to say that we are compliant with TABOR," Wells said.

Specifically, the draft was asking Fort Morgan voters if city taxes should be increased by up to $2.4 million in the first year, and then by however much more after that, with it happening from a 1 percent sales tax increase. The draft also included the specific wording that the money raised by this tax increase was to "pay the costs of street, alley and related infrastructure improvements and maintenance" as appropriated by the city council.

The council members expressed worries that having such a large number at the start of the ballot issue would confuse or scare voters about what the city would be seeking to do.

Advertisement

"The whole thing is too wordy," Councilman Dan Marler said. "I got lost in it. And saying $2.4 million right away is going to scare people."

Mayor Ron Shaver said he thought having the 1 percent increase was more important to have at the start of the ballot issue language and asked Meyers if that was possible. The city attorney did not rule it out, saying he would take that direction and rework the language to have it ready for the council to vote on putting this issue on the ballot at the Sept. 5 regular meeting.

Fort Morgan City Manager Jeff Wells reads the draft language for a ballot issue to raise city sales tax by 1 percent with the money going toward street improvements during Tuesday night's council meeting. Wells explained that the draft language included "legalese" required by the Taxpayers Bill of Rights for such proposed tax increases. (Jenni Grubbs / Fort Morgan Times)

"As far as related infrastructure, it's intended to be a little bit flexible," Meyers said of that part of the draft language, pointing to unexpected changes in technology that could happen at some point. "We have no idea what the future holds."

"It would still have to be directly related to streets," Councilwoman Lisa Northrup said, drawing agreement from the city attorney.

Sidewalks

The council also discussed whether sidewalk improvements should be added to the list of uses by the city for money generated by the ballot issue.

"I would say the streets are what we are first and foremost going after with the 1 percent," Mayor Ron Shaver said. "The alleys are second. We do get a lot of complaints about them. We have to replace the corners as part of ADA (compliance) regardless."

Meyers pointed out that if the city were to specifically take on sidewalk improvements as something the city paid for in full, then it could shift liability for falls on the sidewalks and responsibility for things like snow removal on them to the city away from how it currently rests with adjacent property owners.

Hearing that cooled down the council's support for including sidewalks in the ballot issue.

"I think we should stay the course," Shaver said of whether to specifically include sidewalks in the allowable uses of money from the ballot issue.

The council settled directing Meyers keep the ballot issue language to streets, alleys and the other streets-related work as acceptable uses for money raised by the sales tax increase. So sidewalks would be included when they were part of what the city was already doing with adding a street, reconfiguring the roadway or making ADA improvements.

Councilman Clint Anderson said he wanted to see this focused on streets.

"We need to get them done sooner than later," he said.

Councilwoman Alli Howe said she thought the city needed to also think about pedestrian traffic and safe ways for kids to get across town.

But councilmen Anderson and Kevin Lindell said that would be a separate issue, since this was about improving streets.

No sunset

The council also discussed whether the ballot issue language should include a sunset clause for automatically ending the sales tax increase at some point.

City Clerk/Public Information Officer John Brennan said that the committee that will promote the ballot issue once it is approved by the council to put it before voters discussed including a sunset clause and then did not recommend doing so.

He said the committee had called a tax increase for infrastructure improvements with a sunset a "temporary fix to a permanent problem."

Northrup said she did not want to see future councils stuck having to seek tax increases again because of a sunset in this one.

The council did not direct Meyers to add a sunset clause to the ballot issue language.

Avoiding refunds

The council also heard a fair amount more about why the $2.4 million number would be included in the ballot issue language.

While that figure sets a limit on how much the city would be allowed to collect and spend in the first year after the ballot issue would be passed. But it is far higher than is necessarily expected to come in. Instead, it reflects the city's record for annual sales tax collections, Wells explained.

Having a far higher upper limit as part of the ballot issue would allow the city to avoid the possibility of having to issue TABOR refunds if too much were collected.

"We want to make sure that we don't have to refund," Wells said. "There are communities that have struggled with figuring out how to give it back."

Unlike with property taxes, there are no set records of how much individuals spend in sales tax or in which communities, making issuing such refunds extremely tricky.

"Do we stand on the corners and give out money to all the cars that go by? Do we have a party in the park and give out hamburgers?" Wells questioned. "We really don't want to waste taxpayer money in giving refunds. We want to use that money for how it is intended - streets."

Opposition starting

Brennan reported Tuesday night that there is starting to be some opposition to the proposed ballot issue.

It was mainly coming from people opposed to any new taxes or those worried about government waste, he said.

"They're just generally against raising taxes," Brennan said of what he had heard from those against the ballot issue.

He continued to encourage people to contact him if they wanted to find out more about the proposed ballot issue or to voice support or opposition to it.

To provide the city with feedback on the proposed ballot issue to raise city sales tax by 1 percent with the money going toward improvements to streets and alleys, contact John Brennan at john.brennan@cityoffortmorgan. com or call 970- 542-3963.

Letters to the editor

The Fort Morgan Times also will accept and potentially publish signed letters to the editor on this subject, regardless of position taken on it. Letters must be signed and accompanied by a telephone number. Unsigned letters or those signed with a pseudonym will not be published. The Times reserves the right to edit letters for punctuation, grammar content and length.

Article Comments

We reserve the right to remove any comment that violates our ground rules, is spammy, NSFW, defamatory, rude, reckless to the community, etc.

We expect everyone to be respectful of other commenters. It's fine to have differences of opinion, but there's no need to act like a jerk.

Use your own words (don't copy and paste from elsewhere), be honest and don't pretend to be someone (or something) you're not.

Our commenting section is self-policing, so if you see a comment that violates our ground rules, flag it (mouse over to the far right of the commenter's name until you see the flag symbol and click that), then we'll review it.